


Not Exactly as Dreamed

by vedinamel



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Daydreaming, F/F, High School Stereotypes, Misunderstandings, Wendigo-like angry human Hannah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 00:43:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5144060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vedinamel/pseuds/vedinamel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life was never like Hannah liked to imagine it would be, but being together with her crush in reality was better than the scenarios she enacted in her head. Unfortunately, not everybody is as nice as she would like them to be either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Exactly as Dreamed

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally meant to be an Emily/Sam fic inspired by the "Good Kid/Troublemaker AUs" post by Tumblr user Toxixpumpkin. Somehow it ended up being something completely different. I'm not entirely sure how it happened.

  The mattress wasn’t as comfortable as it should be. Neither was the bed as big as it should seem. As her consciousness slowly returned, Emily deduced that it was not her bed. She was greeted by a white ceiling, not much far from her. It was not a house. Looking at her surroundings, Emily found herself to be in the inside of an ambulance. What an exaggeration, she was fine. Her left eye was hurting a little and she found it a bit difficult to open it, but other than that…

 “Emily? Are you awake?”

  Sam asked as she climbed into the ambulance. Emily clumsily tried to get up, needing Sam’s help.

 “What happened?”

 “Well, after you got knocked out, Hannah…got into trouble somehow.”

  Hannah in trouble? She’s the last person who should be in trouble, especially in a situation like this. Sam did her best to inform Emily of what happened after she got unconscious, but the whole thing seemed off. How did thing end up like this?

           

 A few weeks back, Emily approached Hannah for the very first time, on the grass in front of the school, under the shadow of a large tree that marked her usual lunch eating spot. Josh and Beth were taking their time to join her for lunch, and she had started without them. The lack of their presence had a clear impact on her confidence, which she desperately needed, since it is not always that someone like her is approached by the most popular girl in school, and all by herself, no less!

 “Hi there,” Emily greeted her, sitting next to her without waiting for an invitation. “It’s Hannah, right?”

 “Yow knuw ma ‘ame?!” Hannah asked with her mouth still full. She covered her mouth as she saw the tiny chunks of bread flying from her mouth, and her confidence reached unforeseen depths as she noticed the disgusted look on Emily’s face. It was there just for a moment, but it had been there and Hannah feared that face would haunt her forever.

 “Of course I know your name,” Emily replied, the disgust gone from her face, now adorned with her best smile. “I know a lot about you. You are all over my radar lately.”

 Hannah didn’t even try to contain her lips from opening into a huge smile. Catching the attention of the most popular girl in school? Why, she never dared to imagine…okay, maybe she did a little bit, and maybe, just maybe, there are too many pages in her diary dedicated to Hannah’s daydreams about her. Maybe.

 “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you,” Emily continued. “You stand out, in your own way.”

 Hannah standing out? She had been doing something _right_ all this time and nobody told her? Was it her grades? No, can’t be, the popular ones don’t care about that. Maybe it was her makeup? Her clothes? Her looks in general? Her mom did always tell her she looked like a super model whenever she took pictures of her. Her mom wouldn’t lie about that, right?

 “That is why I was so eager to talk to you.”

 Hannah could feel herself blushing. Emily being eager to talk to her, to see her, to be next to her, all that seemed like something out of the embarrassing imaginary scenarios she wrote down on her diary. To see it finally coming true was surreal. Everything in her vision that wasn’t Emily faded into whiteness. As far as Hannah was concerned, all that existed was just her, Emily and the light of Emily’s radiant beauty.

 “I have something for you,” Emily said as she placed her backpack in front of her, opening it and reaching inside to retrieve what was within.

 What could it be? What could it possibly be? Flowers and chocolate? A love letter? A wedding ring? The golden crown of the magical kingdom she and Hannah would rule together as queens and live happily ever after?!

 “This is my biology homework. It’s due tomorrow, so don’t you dare forget about it.”

 Reality hit Hannah hard as she fell down from her idealized world. She felt a bit dizzy as she took Emily’s homework from her hands. So it really was her grades. They managed to catch Emily’s attention, just not in the way she propheticised in her diary.

 “Do not disappoint me, or there will be dire consequences, you hear?”

  This was unacceptable! If Emily thought she could just show up with her pretty clothes, her delightful perfume, and her perfect face and demand something like this from her, she had another thing coming. She would NOT use Hannah that way!

 “I won’t…” Hannah began, but she committed the mistake of looking up from Emily’s homework to Emily herself. “…let you down.”

 “That is what I like to hear,” replied Emily. “And pay close attention to my handwriting, make it sure it seems it was I who wrote it or we are gonna have words.”

 Was she threatening her? Yeah, she was! Hannah would not accept this kind of behavior. This whole thing was wrong; she was going to tell Emily she would not be her nerdy homework slave and that she wasn’t afraid of her!

 “You can count on me, Emily. I’m your girl, through and through!”

  Or maybe not.

 “That’s a good girl!”

 Emily smiled and patted Hannah on the head a couple of times, and would have patted a bit more had Beth’s hand not grabbed hers. Emily looked up and saw the rest of the Washington siblings glaring down at her.

 “You have five seconds to explain why you’re talking to my sister as if she was a dog,” said Beth, squeezing Emily’s hand a bit tighter.

 “And we better love the answer,” continued Josh, rolling back his sleeves and cracking his knuckles. “Or else…”

 “Or else what, clown boy?” Emily responded, pulling her hand back,  getting back on her feet and staring at the much taller Josh in the eyes.

 “Hey, hey,” said Hannah, standing up and putting herself between the two, gently placing her hands on Josh’s chest and pushing him away, “why the hostilities? We are all friends here, right?”

 “No!” said the other three in unison.

 “Come on,” said Hannah with forced cheerfulness. “I made extra brownies to share today,” she ducked to pick up the small plastic container she used to store her brownies without leaving her spot and stood up quickly, in fear that her siblings would have used those few seconds as an opening to cause bodily harm to her popular crush.

 Emily took one of the brownies, took a bite out of it without breaking eye contact with Hannah’s siblings and slowly backed away.

 “See you later, Hannah,” she said as she departed.

 Emily’s exit did nothing to sooth the mood, as Hannah’s brother and sister met her with not so friendly inquisitive looks. She felt a shiver going up her spine as she sat down.

 The chair was uncomfortable, the handcuffs hurt her wrists and the small interrogation room was suffocating her. Bad Cop Beth shined her flashlight on her face, the light hurting Hannah’s sensitive eyes.

 “What were you two talking about, huh? Are you working for her? How long have you been on her payroll?” She punched the table once, making Hannah jump. “Damn it, girl! I want answers!”

  “Easy there, sis,” Good Cop Josh intervened. Hannah found the reflection of her expression of fear in his oversized glasses pathetic. “We are not here to hurt you. We just want to know why you were talking to a sworn enemy of the United Republic of Washington.”

 “Spit it out, Hannah!” Bad Cop Beth demanded.

 “Tell us, Hannah,” Good Cop Josh plead.”

 Hannah. Hannah. Hannah. Hannah! Hannah! Hannah!

 “Hellooo! Earth to Hannah! Houston, we have a problem,” Beth waved her hand in front of Hannah’s face, which had been spacing out a bit longer than usual.

  “I want to see my lawyer now!” Hannah shouted, backing away from her confused siblings as she snapped out of her daydream

 Josh and Beth looked at each other and Josh extended his hand to take the plastic container off Hannah’s hands.

 “Oookay…I don’t know what you put in these brownies, but I think you had enough already.”

 “What? Oh no no no!” Hannah panicked at the assumption. “I wouldn’t! I didn’t! I’d never!”

 “Come now, it’s just a joke,” Josh reassured his worried sister as he took a brownie for himself.

 “A really tasteless one,” Hannah replied.

 “Nah, nah, thi’ awe ‘ery thasty!” Josh responded, little chunks of brownie flying out of his mouth as he talked with his mouth full. It ran in the family.

 “As if goody two-shoes Hannah would get involved with that. Now, what did Emily want with you?” Beth pried.

 “I have the right to remain silent!” was Hannah’s answer.

 Back at her home, Hannah put her books and notebooks away after finish her own homework and stared at Emily’s for a little bit. Part of her had been proud that she never had succumbed to any popular kid’s demand to do their work for them until that day. Not that she had been asked before; it seemed that she didn’t stand out much amongst all the other nerds. She wasn’t even a straight A student, she had received a B+ once.

  Was she really going to do it for Emily? No of course not! She showed up out of nowhere, dumped her own duties on poor unsuspecting Hannah, and was very rude too. What did it matter that she looked like an angel and smelled like heaven? That didn’t give her the right to threat Hannah like that! Nope, she would not do it. Not at all. Not even a little.

 “Oh Hannah,” Ideal Emily’s voice whispered in Hannah’s ear. She involved Hannah in her arms from behind and held her tight. “I’m so sorry for the way I acted. The truth is…” Ideal Emily released her to throw herself dramatically on her desk. “I’m a coward! I used that as an excuse to talk to you.”

 “It’s okay, Emily,” Hannah comforted her imaginary admirer. “Talking with you was a delight, really!”

 “Oh, I’m so embarrassed!” Ideal Emily dramatically declared, turning away and covering her face in shame. “I’m also afraid that I may not be smart enough to do all this homework by myself!”

 “That’s alright. If you are having problems with that subject, I wouldn’t mind helping you out.”

 “Would you be my tutor?” Ideal Emily asked, her face completely red and her voice sounding sheepish.

 “You betcha!” Hannah said, pulling her closer. “I can teach you all kinds of things.”

 “Hannah?”

 Josh’s voice coming from the door, followed by a knock, yanked Hannah out of her daydream and Ideal Emily melted away in front of her eyes, leaving her alone again with her reality.

 “Hannah, who are you talking to?”

“I…err…I’m…practicing for the audition of the school’s next play?”

“Really?! Oh man, I can totally help you with that! I totally nailed Pennywise in the last play.”

 Josh tuned the handle and began opening the door, but Hannah rushed towards it and pushed it back in place, blocking Josh’s entrance.

  “Thank you, but it won’t be necessary.”

 “Oh, come on. When you a have a future Oscar winner actor and director in your family, you gotta use it to your advantage.”

 “Thanks again, but…this is something I have to do on my own?”

 “Oh, I see,” Josh stopped trying to open the door, but Hannah kept leaning against it. “You wanna impress your big bro, that’s sweet, but you got nothing to prove to me, sis. Well, I’ll leave you to it then. Remember, practice makes perfect!”

 “I will, thank you!”

  Hannah didn’t leave the door until Josh’s footsteps became inaudible. She felt silly for blocking his entrance. It’s not like he would have seen her daydreams with Emily, or recognized Emily’s things on her desk. Hannah was never quite sure why her siblings hated Emily so much. She remembers that they were on friendly terms once, but then there was something about a prank that went wrong? Hannah was always pretty bad at keeping up with school drama, and neither Beth or Josh ever went into any detail.

She left the door and went back to her desk, opening Emily’s notebook. Emily’s hand writing was so beautiful; her cursive was made out of elegant loops and delicate lines. Nobody with such pretty handwriting could be that bad, right? Mimicking her writing was going to be a challenge, but Hannah decided that this was her chance to impress Emily.

 Maybe if she did this right, Emily would talk to her again, and then maybe they’ll hang out, then become really close, and then maybe…just maybe…

 “I’m tired of daydreaming!” She picked up a pen and began her immoral assignment, paying close attention to how Emily’s letters turned and looped, making it believable that that was an authentic Emily work.

 Hannah smiled. Shady businesses, challenging works, love for a woman hated by her kin, the unlikely heroine fighting the odds to get closer to the one she loved. Her life was actually starting to seem like the romantic novels she liked so much. And the heroine always gets the girl in the end.

 

 Delegating her homework to Hannah Washington proved to be a mistake. At least if she were doing her homework herself, she would have something to keep her mind busy, now there was nothing to do but let her mind drown in boredom.

 Emily’s phone vibrated. A text from Mike, with encouraging words, reassuring messages, just like all the ones before. He was proving to be a surprisingly good friend. He took it well when Emily revealed to him that he was just her “beard”, all her rules about no holding hands, no kissing and so on made a lot more sense then.

 He kept playing his part until Jessica came around. Emily didn’t see the fairness in keeping him on a fake relationship while he yearned for a possible real one. Emily could be magnanimous sometimes, but just sometimes. If you appear to be soft too often people will begin to expect all kinds of freebies from you. She could have spent a little more time on planning their fake break up, though.

 The most popular couple in school breaking up, with one of its halves quickly entering a new relationship was not something that went unnoticed by the harsh whispers of Blackwood High’s hallways. Soon all kinds of nasty rumors began spreading. Mike did his best to put an end to them, but terrible stories about people of high status were just so juicy for people to give up on them.

 One by one, Emily’s friends started avoiding her because of some rumor or other. There were so many contradictory ones, some really absurd ones, some they should know couldn’t possibly be true, but who would want to be seen with someone people loved to make up nasty stories about? What if they were next?

 Now without her social cycle, no fake relationships with an unexpected best friend, absent parents and no homework to keep her mind of things, Emily was consumed by boredom, and with bored her thoughts drifted away in many different directions, eventually focusing on…her.

 Sam, the only person other than Mike that she knew tried to stop people from spreading the nasty rumors about her. They used to be good friends; until Emily’s parents became rich, then Emily’s new friends did all they could to keep her from talking to anyone who weren’t wearing cashmere.

 She thought absence would make her heart yonder, but whenever she saw Sam she’d find that Sam could still make her heart skip a beat just by looking at her direction and smiling. Emily found herself to be such an idiot, letting other people influence her to stay away from someone who were so dear to her. This was so backwards, she was the one supposed to influence people, goddamnit!

 Emily got out of her bed with a jump. So what that her fake friends were showing their true colors now? They were just holding her back, she didn’t need them. She didn’t need anyone! She was Emily long before her parent’s wealth and the popularity, and Emily doesn’t stay alone in the dark moping about decisions that had bad outcomes, she moves forward and gets shit done! And she would start by reconnecting with Sam again. That bridge wasn’t burned, just needed some maintenance

 Talking to her directly? Seemed the most practical approach, but something didn’t feel right, running back to her old friend now that things were bad? Oh no, that sounded like something a weak person would do, and Emily’s not one of those. Sam would come to her! Yes, Sam was always such a nice and caring person, she would go to her to see if Emily was okay. That’s more like it.

However, making Sam go to her proved to be a problem in an otherwise perfect plan, It’s been a little over a week since all her fake friends left her and Sam still only looked at her and smiled when seeing her in the hallways, but never approached her. Emily decided that using a bait would be best, a message maybe? Communicating with her by text soon proved to not be viable, as Emily found that her phone did not contain Sam’s phone anymore, probably courtesy of her ex-friends’ attempts to cut her off from unpopular people.

 “What am I doing?” She asked herself as she finished the writing the note by hand. Now she was back to running back to Sam, like a kid crying to mommy after she fell and hurt her knee. No, no, this was something completely different, in the note she just said that she wished to talk to her more again and to go find her, she was demanding Sam to come to her, totally different thing.

 Yes, “demanding” sounded more like her.

 

 

  On the following day, Emily found herself waking up a bit later than usual. Her family’s competent driver managed to prevent her from arriving late, but she still missed her first window to slip the note into Sam’s locker. With the first period over, she looked at Sam from afar from her locker. She always seemed to be smiling, Emily couldn’t understand how someone could be so cheerful almost all the time, but it was a small thing that Emily appreciated about her. Who knows, maybe when all this is over they’ll be grinning like idiots together. That was something to look forward to.

 “Good morning, Emily!”

 Emily jumped as Hannah appearing seemingly out of nowhere as she closed her locker.. After the greeting Hannah said nothing, just stared at her with a big smile on her face. It quickly became awkward and Emily noticed people were starting to stare.

 “Hello there, Hannah,” she greeted her newly appointed homework doer. “What could you possibly want at a time like this?”

 Emily thought her discomfort was clear, but Hannah didn’t seem to notice it. Though, why was she uncomfortable? Her popularity was already as good as dead and she had moved on already, what harm would it make to be seen with the nerd who talks to herself and writes stories alone? Some habits really are hard to break, it seems.

 “I finished your homework,” Hannah handled Emily her book and notebook, when Emily took them, she felt the tips of Hannah’s fingers…caressing her hands as she took her things from her hands? “Don’t worry, I copied your handwriting perfectly. Nobody will be able to tell the difference.”

 “Good, thanks.”

 “It wasn’t easy, though.”

 “I bet,” Emily answered automatically, not much caring for what Hannah had to say.

  “Your handwriting is very pretty.”

 Emily’s attention picked upon hearing that. Her memory wasn’t perfect, but she was quite sure that was the first time anyone complimented her on anything that wasn’t her looks. Hell, not even her parents ever complimented something she did, but then again, they never seemed to care much about her in general.

 “And I mean really pretty.”

 “Oh. Wow, hmmm…” what do you even do with a compliment like that? When someone compliments your looks the right thing to do is to give a smug response, because _of course_ you look beautiful, especially when you are Emily, but a compliment about something you _do…_ ”Thanks, I guess?”

 “You’re welcome! Soooo…anything else I can help you with?”

 Looking at Hannah’s eyes, Emily was reminded of the way puppies look at the people who care for them, that big eyed stare of blind adoration. But why this now? Emily was surprised that she agreed to do her homework, but she presumed it was because Hannah wasn’t in the loop yet. She should have been all caught up in the latest gossips right now, shouldn’t she? Do nerds even gossip?

  “Here, take these,” Emily grabbed her material from her History class, the closest thing she could grab, and handed it to Hannah. She didn’t even have a problem with History, in fact she kinda liked it, I mean, getting to know what people with _real_ power and _real_ influence over others were capable of doing to the entire world long ago, who wouldn’t find that fascinating? Her popular ex-friends didn’t get it. High school was nothing; the real action was out there! If Emily could just survive high school first…

  “Okey-dokey!” There was something strange in Hannah’s voice, the enthusiasm sounded both forced and genuine somehow. “I won’t disappoint you.”

 Hannah seemed like she was about to say something more, but she turned away and took off. What a strange girl, the Washingtons sure were a colorful bunch. With Hannah gone, Emily was now once again free of distractions. She waited for Sam to walk away from her locker and approached it. All she had to do was slip the note in the locker, then during lunch they would…errr…where is the note? Emily was sure she had it in one of her her pockets, but they turned out to be empty when she reached inside them.

 “Oh, you gotta be kidding me.”

 

 “Stupid, stupid,” Hannah muttered to herself. She had this whole smooth game plan all thought out, she had even found some pretty good pick up lines online, but when she actually had Emily right in front of her, her whole strategy broke down in various tiny puzzle pieces and she had no time to put it all back together. The whole thing was a disaster, a colossal disaster! Who flirts by complimenting someone’s handwriting? How embarrassing.

 Hannah sat at her usual spot at the front roll and put Emily’s stuff in her backpack, but a piece of paper separated itself from the rest, ending up on the floor. Hannah picked it up and…

“I think we should talk again.

Come find me during lunch

-Emily”

 This had happened before! No, wait…Hannah had daydreamed about Emily sending her love letters, being a secret admirer, but this wasn’t any of those, it was just an invitation to talk. Reality is never as romantic and glamorous as we picture it to be in our heads, is it? But it was still better than she was hoping for. Right after her tremendous disaster with hitting on Emily, the universe gave Hannah a freebie. Just how fantastic was that?

 Hannah read the very short note again and again. She had written _Elementary_ fanfics before, so she knew she was able to extract more meaning from those fell words. Why did Emily give her a note inviting her to talk somewhere when they could just have talked near the lockers just a few minutes ago? Oh, that’s an obvious one! Emily wants to talk about something in private, something she can’t say with people nearby, such as confessing her feeling for Hannah! Plus, the fact that she wrote it down and gave it to her in secret was proof that under that stern exterior, Emily must be shy, otherwise she would just have told her to meet her instead of writing it down.

 Ha! Hannah could totally be a detective. And her siblings thought that rewatching season one of _Elementary_ over and over was a waste of time. Next stop: a murder case. Emily would help her investigate too. As her future girlfriend, she’ll be worried about Hannah going after a murderer alone. Then Hannah will train her to be a detective too and…

 “Miss Washington, the answer?” Inquired Mr. Burn.

 “Answer, what answer?” Hannah asked back, yanked from yet another daydream.

 “Having high grades does not mean you get to not pay attention in class, Miss Washington. If there is one thing History can teach you is that overconfidence is followed by a tragic fall. Forget the question. Now, as I was saying: the Cree inhabited the Canadian Rockies, and…”

 With the bell that signaled the lunch break, Emily went to her usual spot, the benches of the school’s football field. It used to be the place where she and her flock of popular turncoats would hang out and eat during lunch. At first she thought that her ex-friends would ban her from being there, but she always happened to arrive first and whenever she caught sight of them approaching they would turn back and go elsewhere. Perhaps she hadn’t lost all of her power after all? Keeping undesirables away with a glance and claiming a territory of her own felt good. Popular or outcast, she was still the queen, and nobody would-

 “Hi Emily!”

 Emily jumped from her seat. She looked at where the voice came from and there was Hannah Washington again. Damn, that girl was sneaky. Emily recomposed herself and sat down again.

 “Hi Hannah, listen, I want to spend some time-“

 “Oh, I had a good feeling about today, so I made some extra lunch for us to share.”

 “That’s very nice of you, but…” Emily looked at the lunch Hannah had made for her. On her rush to arrive in time she forgot to make lunch for herself. Wait a minute…did Hannah think they were friends now?

 “But what, Emily?”

 There was it again, that look of blind adoration, like a puppy. Did she still think Emily was one of the popular kids or did she finally caught up on the news and decided to take the opportunity to be friends with her, now that the barrier of popularity wasn’t keeping her away anymore? Either way, those sandwiches did look good.

 “Nothing, nevermind,” she took one of the sandwiches and began eating it. “Have you seen Sam?”

 “Sam? Nope.  I didn’t pay much attention to anyone. I was so eager to get here everybody was just a blur, and I was wearing my glasses, mind you.”

 The goofiest grin took hold of Hannah’s face and the two just sat there in silence for a little while.

 “It was a joke. You know, because without my glasses everything is a blur, and I was in a hurry…so everybody was…a blur, but with the glasses.”

 Hannah was about to cover her face with shame when Emily finally smiled. A joke, when was the last time Emily heard one? Not a mean spirited one her ex-friends would tell about people they didn’t like, but just something silly someone said out loud without thinking . Everybody thought themselves so mature while being immature pricks, it was nice having someone nice around for a change.

 “That was…a good one.”

 “Really?”

 “No, it was terrible, but A+ for effort and all that. Though I guess that’s the kind of grade you’re used to.”

 “Not really,” Hannah said, looking down and recoiling a little bit. “I’m not as smart as everybody thinks I am.”

 “You’re kidding.”

 “No, it’s true. I got a B+ once.”

 Emily smiled wider this time. Oh wow, a B+, how many times had she heard that in sitcoms and cartoons as a joke before? Though Hannah sounded serious this time, that was…adorable? Cute? Endearing? Could a nerd even be those things? Emily began to laugh at herself. Oh my, the “Alpha Bitch” realizing that the “Nerd” was more than a trivia spilling undesirable thing. When did she get so caught up on stereotypes like that?  Popularity had messed up her head more than she had thought.

 “Hahaha! Oh Hannah, I guess I’ll have to find someone else to do my homework now. You’re so underqualified.”

 “I guess all the other know-it-alls already have their hands full,” Emily felt Hannah’s hand caressing hers, and then holding it tightly. “You’re stuck with me.”

 Emily turned her head to ask something, but as soon as she faced Hannah, the other girl’s slips touched hers.

 It was quick, not very passionate, but the growing smile on Hannah’s blushing face showed that it meant a lot to her.

 Whispers came from somewhere and when Emily looked at the direction of their origin she found the girls she used to hang out with, wish chocked faces and cell phones pointed at them. “I knew it,” declared one of them, “sooo gross,” said another, “if only they were two guys,” said a third.

 Emily stood up in what would have been a futile attempt at intimidating them, considering how far they were, but they had all seen Emily angry before and they knew it was best to run away, though without trying to conceal their demands of “send it! Send it! Send it!”

 

 “What a dick move,” said Jess, looking at her phone. Every five minutes someone would send her the video of Hannah and Emily together. “They have no right to out you like this. Just tell me their names and I’m going to-“

 “Calm down, babe. Easy there,” said Mike.

 Emily and Jess had a rocky start when she arrived at Blackwood High, at the pinnacle of Emily’s popularity. Now, seeing Jess being angry for her instead of at her was nice. It felt good to have someone who could be so furious on her side. Emily did feel bad that they got out of their date to go check up on her at her home. Being reminded that she still had people she could call friends was reassuring.

 “Okay, okay. Talk now, vengeance later. So…you and Hannah Washington, huh?”

 “Jess, come on,” Mike chastised her. “Even I have more tact than that.”

 “It’s okay,” said Emily. “We are not together or anything. She stole a kiss from me, actually”

 

“You stole a kiss from HER?!” Beth inquired with no regard for her volume.

 “Beth, less anger and more sisterly love here, please.” Josh requested.

 Beth sat beside Hannah on her bed and involved her sister in her arms, holding her tightly.

 “I’m sorry Hannah. People are such jerks.”

 “It’s okay, Beth. It’s not how I expected to come out but…here we are.”

 “Just let us know if anyone bothers you,” said Josh. “I’m gonna show’em what happens when someone messes with one of my little sisters!”

 “I don’t think that throwing pies at people will keep them away, Josh,” said Beth.

 “God, you play a clown in a play once…Pennywise is one of the scariest characters in literature, alright? I totally nailed the scary part! I can make anyone in that school wet their pants out of fear if I feel like it!”

 “Josh, this is about Hannah, not you,” Beth looked at Hannah again. “But Emily? Really? WHY?!”

 

 “Well, she’s nice, and smart, and I guess she’s pretty cute,” said Emily, “but I was actually going for Sam.”

 “Sam? The energetic let’s-all-be-friends goody-good?” Jess inquired.

 “Hey, she’s a delight to be around!”

 “I’m not judging, it’s just surprising it’s all.”

 “So, how did you pursue Sam and ended up having Hannah kiss you? I’m not following here,” said Mike.

 

 “She wrote down a note saying that she wanted to spend time together and talk more, so that’s what I did, I went there and we talked and…the rest just happened,” said Hannah, sounding a little smug as she finished.

 “It just happened?” Beth asked.

 “What can I say? Call me Miss Smooth. She just couldn’t keep her hands off me”

 “You stole a kiss from her.”

 “…Smoothly.”

 

On the following day all eyes were on Emily. People stared and whispered to one another as she walked down the hallways. She went to get some things from her locker and Hannah would have sneaked up on her again if it weren’t for people announcing her presence when they saw that she was heading into Emily’s direction.

 Hannah didn’t seem to care about all the attention. Emily had the impression she didn’t even notice all the attention. In her eyes filled with blind adoration and (as Emily now was aware of) unconditional infatuation, everybody else but Emily was probably a blur to her now. Heh, “a blur”.

 Emily realized that she was smiling at the memory of the joke as she looked at Hannah’s direction, and the other girl must have thought she was smiling at her, for her own smile grew wider.

 “Hi Emily!”

 “We need to talk.”

 Emily grabbed Hannah’s hand and lead her outside, followed by disgusted looks, some cheering, and some people clapping.

 

 “…Sam?” Hannah asked.

 “Yes, that’s right. The note must have ended up on the stuff I gave you by accident. I’m sorry.”

 Hannah wiped a tear that was running down her cheek. She concentrated really hard on not crying, but her eyes just wouldn’t obey. Emily wiped the following tears herself and put an arm around her, leaning Hannah’s head on her shoulder.

 “I thought you never apologized to anyone about anything.”

 “Well, even I can make mistakes, I guess, and you deserve an apology.”

“So…what now?”

 Hannah’s hair smelled like flowers, that was something Emily hadn’t noticed before. The shorter nerd girl snuggled closer to her and clinged to her jacket. She had always seemed so shy, for her to make the first move like she had done in the previous day must have taken a lot of courage. She was cute and friendly, though a bit silly. Emily felt awful for breaking her heart like that. But, then again…

 “Hannah?”

 Hannah looked up at her. Confusion, anticipation, fear, hope. All those feelings reflecting in her eyes.

 “Would you…like to go out, sometime?”

 The credit card her parents gave to her (as a demonstration of parental love, of course) opened a huge variety of things to do and places to go, but Emily didn’t want to come out as too snobbish. Not yet.

 She eventually decided on a dinner. A nice restaurant, nothing too fancy. She made reservations at the Light Between Space. A strange name, but it had a certain status that made it ideal for a first date. Things went well, though they had very different interests, they both managed to make things interesting to each other. At some point Hannah had noticed the author of one of her favorite novels were having dinner at that same restaurant. Despite Emily’s encouragement, she was just too shy to go over there and ask for an autograph, which maybe was for the best, as she appeared to be in a date herself.

 On the following days, Hannah dragged Emily to her house. She cooked for her, shared her novels with her and reluctantly showed her butterfly collection to her. She could tell Emily wasn’t much into it, but she managed to explain her interest in them in a way that wasn’t too weird. There were so many fascinating things in the world, butterflies are one of them. As she talked at different species and myths about them, Hannah felt like a character from one of her works of fiction again. The commoner girl who helps the princess escape the palace and shows her the beauty that there is beyond the palace’s walls. A classic.

 Josh and Beth still didn’t like having Emily in their house, but she made Hannah happy, so they acted like grownups about it and left them alone. Josh thought that she could do worst. Beth thought she couldn’t, but whatever floats her boat.

 Emily’s parents didn’t seem to mind. She didn’t even know if they were aware of the forced coming out of their daughter. She forwarded an e-mail telling them about the recent events, but they never replied from wherever their new business took them. So as far as she was concerned, everything was good. She couldn’t help but sound smug as she gave Hannah a tour through her unnecessarily big house. Since her parents were rarely at home, it felt like she was the only one living there. Not that it bothered her; it just meant that there was more space for her.

 The tour ended at her closet. She found that Hannah was really cute, but that shirt with those shoes? Oh God, couldn’t the butterflies have propheticised that those things would go out of style three years ago? Hannah didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of just taking Emily’s clothes at first, but with a compliment here, a compliment there and she warmed up to the idea. She also began acting a bit coy when Emily reminded her that those were her girlfriend’s clothes she was wearing.

 As the days passed, Emily’s crush on Sam faded away, replaced by feelings for someone else. Things seemed to be looking up.

 

 “Alright everybody!” Jess shouted to get the attention of the other cheerleaders. “From the top!”

 Mike watched Jess practice cheers with the other cheerleaders, not paying attention on what he should be doing. Getting tackled by a bunch of guys after a ball hit his head reminded him of that.

 “Mike!” Shouted Coach Hill. “Pay attention, goddamnit! The game is coming up and I need everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, one hundred percent in the damn field!”

 “Oooowww…” was Mike’s first response after the other players got off him. “Yes, sir. I’m one hundred percent now, sir,” was his second response.

“Keep your head in the game, man,” said Matt, offering a hand to help Mike stand up.

 “Can you blame him?” asked the quarterback. “His last girl turned gay after dating him. If he doesn’t keep an eye on the new one, we might lose something other than the game to another team, am I right?!”

 The rest of the team laughed, except for Mike and Matt.

 “There is so much wrong in what you just said, I don’t even know where to start.”

 “Oh yeah?” incited the quarterback. “Are you gonna go all politically correct on me now, bro?”

 Matt noticed Mike closing his hand into a fist and saw it was time to intervene.

 “Forget it, Mike. It’s not worth it. Come on, the Coach is looking angry, let’s go back to the training.”

 Mike and the quarterback glared at each other for a moment, then went back to the training, as Matt half suggested and half advised. Not far from there the cheerleaders we still practicing.

 “You are nothing/ Just like the rest/ We’ll crush you/ ‘Cause we are the best/ You’ll cower when we attack/ Mo-mo-mo-monarch!”

 

 “It went this way!” Hannah lead on, going into the gym.

 Emily stopped at the door to catch her breath. She found that a bit unfair, she invited Hannah to watch the school’s football game to see other people doing the running, not her. But when Hannah got the glimpse of a butterfly flying into the school’s gym, there just wasn’t any way to stop her. She could be so impulsive sometimes. She watched Hannah searching the gym for that one small butterfly with the small plastic container that contained their snack before Hannah impulsively threw it away so she could use it to catch her pretty bug.

 Thinking of bugs, Emily hoped that Hannah would find it in time for them to see Ashley. She was the school’s mascot, Mona the monarch butterfly, and she could be pretty funny in that role. She went into the gym to help Hannah look, to speed things up, but Hannah found it before she started looking

 “A-ha! Found you!” Hannah smugly declared as she approached the butterfly. With a swift movement she trapped the flying bug in the container and smiled widely as she returned to Emily with her prize in hands.

 “Very good, hon. You’d make an excellent hunter, a natural predator.”

 “You have no idea. This was an easy one, you have no idea of the things I did to catch beauties like this.” Hannah looked at the butterfly through the container with glee. “Hello, friend. Soon I’ll take you to your new home. My, what pretty red wings you have! Emily, look at this patterns!”

 “How very insensitive!” shouted the Monarch’s quarterback, entering the gym along with what Emily believed to be 2/3 of the football team, and her popular ex-friends were with them too. “Carrying more about a bug than about us, and on our big night no less!”

 “We were just going,” said Emily, grabbing onto Hannah’s hand as the football players and the popular girls started to spread, covering the baths to the exits. “Besides, aren’t you boys the ones with an obligation to be there?”

 “Oh we have plenty of time,” said the huge football player, taking his jacket off and handing it to another player. “We just saw you and thought “hey, it is not every day you get to meet 1/3 of the world’s lesbian population. We should go get to know them better”, so here we are.”

 “Well, nice meting you,” said Emily. “Now, if you excuse us, we need-“

 “Oh, we do not excuse you. Not right now,” the quarterback said as he rushed to block their way. “You see, we are all quite curious about this whole homosexuality thing. We’d like to learn more, and since this IS a school and you two are experts in this subject, why don’t you educate us a little?”

 Hannah held tighter to Emily’s hand. She held the container with the butterfly tightly to her chest and slowly moved to hide behind Emily. Emily never took any shit from jocks before, and she certainly wouldn’t now.

 “You don’t scare us, big guy. Now, excusing us or not, we have better places to be.”

 Emily held tight to Hannah’s hand and tried going around the quarterback, not running, but not quite walking either. But the football player was faster and grabbed Emily by the arm.

 “Come on, we just want to know who the guy of the relationship is. You’re both so girly we just can’t tell,” said the quarterback. “Be nice, help us understand.”

 “Understand the palm of my hand, you jerk!”

 Emily let go of Hannah’s hand and landed a hard and loud slap on the quarterback’s face. The skin turned red where the hand made contact and the football player lost his balance, but did not fall. He let go off Emily’s arm, punching her in the face with the same hand he used to hold her.

 “Emily!” Hannah cried out as she kneeled down to check on her girlfriend. The force of the punch gave her a black eye and knocked her out.

 “You hit a girl!” said another player. “Dude, you just hit a girl!” said another. “A girl, dude!” said a third.

 “Shut up!” was the quarterback’s response. “She hit me first, basic self-defense.” He approached the crying and panicking Hannah. “Hey now, there there. She’ll be fine. Now, since she’s out for a while, why don’t you answer our questions? Have you ever been with man before?”

 Hannah ignored him, pulling Emily closed to her and holding her in her arms, her whole body shaking.

 “Come on, it’s a harmless question. I mean, how do you know you don’t like guys if you have never been with one? It’s basic logic, right guys?” He put a hand on Hannah’s shoulder and smiled. “Come on, don’t you want to be absolutely sure you’re gay? She doesn’t even need to know.”

 The world froze around Hannah. She looked at Emily’s unconscious body, at the gross expression of the quarterback, and the equally disgusting faces of the other players and of Emily’s former friends.

  How could something like this happen, and right when she was finally being happy with Emily? In her daydreams, the two of them were always by themselves, alone in the world, nothing to bother them, nobody to hurt them, just the two of them and their feelings for each other. But reality is never quite what we’d like to image it to be, is it?

 The skin of Emily’s forehead peeled in the shape of butterfly wings. The wings started to beat and the emerging butterfly took flight. Skin, fabric, concrete, wood, glass, all breaking down around her. The people, the surroundings, the objects breaking into little pieces in the shape of butterflies that flew around her  and faded away, leaving her alone in the dark void.

 Something snapped.

 The quarterback screamed as Hannah grabbed his arm and twisted it, snapping his shoulder. She stood up with a spin, her glasses slipping from her face as she kicked the quarter back in the face. His jaw broke with the impact, and he spun around as he fell to the ground.

 The football players and the popular girls where paralyzed with shock as they saw the huge quarter back being taken down by the shy nerd girl. Hannah glared at them and when she opened her mouth, a loud inhuman shriek made their eyes start ringing.

 Hannah was there in a moment, but in the next she wasn’t. They looked around looking for the girl who disappeared in the split second when they weren’t looking at her. They were right at the center of the gym; there wasn’t any place she could possibly have gone to hide so quickly.

  One of the football players was the first to find her, as she tackled, bringing him to the ground, breaking his nose with a punch and his front teeth with another. He tried to push her away, but she grabbed his arm, pulling and twisting it as she moved off him, letting go when she heard the snapping sound. Her movements were fluid, quick, flexible, taking the boys and girls who harassed them down with tackles, kicks and punches. Leaping and spinning in the air like a gymnast. The big and strong football players, too used to brawling with people as big and slow as them, were caught off guard by the quick and agile victim turned attacker.

 And the shrieks! Goddamn, the shrieks.

 “Come on, it’s just a girl!” said one of the players, pushing another forward “go get her!”

 “Get her? I’m getting the hell out of here!”

 Two of the football players and one of the girls ran away, Hannah’s shrieks could still be heard as they ran though the hallways.

 “Jesus, that girl is a freak!”

 The football player tripped, falling face first on the floor.

 “Lil’ help here,” he said, trying to get up as he wiped the blood from his nose.”Bro? Bae?”

 He stood up, looking around. Where were the other two? They were just behind him a second ago! They certainly did not pass him by after he fell.

 “Bro? Bae? This isn’t funny.”

  He did not hear the shrieks of the strange nerd girl anymore, neither the screams of his friends who were being beat up while he just watched. He took a few steps back and bumped onto something, he turned and there was Hannah.

 “JESUS HOT SAUCE CHRISTMAS CAKE!”

 He began running again, but when he turned on a corner, there she was again. Her clothes covered in splats and doublets of his friends’ blood, their skin in her nails. Her face was a blank expression and her eyes were empty, devoid of all the emotions that filled them not long ago.

  “H-h-hey, let’s talk about this, alright?” the football player said, slowly backing away. “W-w-w-we weren’t going to do anything. It was all the quarterback’s idea.”

  Hannah didn’t move, she just stared at him, stared though him.

 “I had no idea he would act like that, I had no part in this! It was supposed to be just a prank, alright? It was just a prank!”

 Hannah didn’t respond, she just stood there where she was.

 “Are we cool?”

 Hannah did nothing. He sighed relieved. Then she leaped at him.

 “Where the hell is everybody?!” asked Coach Hill. The visiting team had already arrived and the game was about to begin.

 “They are not answering my text messages,” said Mike. “Neither my Whats App messages, Facebook messages, Tumblr asks…”

 “They aren’t answering my calls either,” said Matt.”But I’m sure they are in the school’s grounds, I saw them earlier.”

 “Then what are you waiting for? GO FIND THEM!” Couch Hill’s face was red, Matt thought for a moment that it was about to explode.

 As they began running to the last place Matt saw the rest of the team, a loud hellish shriek came from the gym. They looked back at Coach Hill, who screamed at them to just go already, goddamnit!

 Crying and painful moans reached their ears as they opened the doors of the gym.  A couple of football players dragged themselves on the floor, unable to stand up, leaving a trail of blood as they crawled. Some of the girls covered their faces and cried while other football players called for their mothers.

 Matt called Mike’s attention to one corner of the gym, where Hannah was sitting on the floor, rocking back and forth as she held Emily in her arms.

 

 

 The red lights of sirens became more prominent as the sunlight became weaker. Sam offered a hand, but Emily could get up on her own. She looked around and found Hannah in another ambulance. Ignoring the people that called for her, she ran to where her girlfriend was. At a first glance she seemed okay, but when Hannah saw her approaching, she recoiled back.

 “No! Stay away!” Hannah shouted, curling up and covering her head with her hands.

 “Hannah, what’s wrong?”Emily got in the back of the ambulance and sat in front of her.

 “I-I-I don’t know w-w-w-what happened. I hurt them! I hurt them all so bad!”

 “Oh, babe, it’s okay,” Emily changed seats, sitting right beside Hannah and placing a hand on her shoulder. “They deserved it.”

 “You don’t understand, hurting people is bad, even when they deserve it. It was as if I was possessed, seeing it happen to someone else. Is this what being evil feels like?”

 “You’re not evil, Hannah.”

 “What’s next? Skipping class? Being rude to my parents? CANNIBALISM?!” 

 “Hannah,” Emily placed both hands on the sides of Hannah’s face, making Hannah face her. “You protected yourself, and saved me. You’re practically a hero, there’s no bad in that.”

 She leaned forward for a kiss, but hearing her name and Hannah’s being shouted as if they were curse words ruined the moment. Emily looked outside and found Josh, Beth and Sam talking and blocking the passage of the parents of the kids Hannah beat up. No matter how rotten the apples were, the trees didn’t seem to want anyone throwing them in the trash.

 “You girls can walk?” Matt asked as he approached the ambulance. “’cause there’s a bunch of angry people coming this way, and I don’t think we can talk them all down.”

 “But we did nothing!” Emily protested, “they were the ones…oh, forget it. Thanks Matt.”

 Angry parents, impulsive students and grown people who used to study at Blackwood High demanded to see the monster who dared hurt the innocent football players, and right in the night of such an important game too! Such promising young talents!

 Coach Hill boiled with anger, he scolded the angry mob for being angry at the wrong people, but they weren’t in a mood to listen. The “Monarch Spirit” was hurt and people wanted retribution, but no matter how much they searched, Hannah and Emily were nowhere to be found.

**********

 

“Yes ma’am,” Emily responded to her mother in the phone. “No ma’am. No ma’am. Yes ma’am. I appreciate you too, ma’am. Bye.”

 “I appreciate you too, ma’am?” Hannah asked, Emily had told her how distant her mother could be, but still…

 “That’s as affectionate as I’m allowed to get, and honestly, I don’t want to get more affectionate than that.”

 “Aww, my poor baby,” Hannah wrapped her arms around Emily from behind. “So damaged, so cold.”

 “Who you calling damaged?”

 “Hey you guys!” Josh kicked the door open, with his hands behind his back. “We are having a snowball fight outside, you two want in?”

 “You throw one, just one, and I’m calling my mom again to unleash her lawyers on your ass after they are done with those jerks back at home!”

 “Okay okay,” Josh relaxed, showing the snowballs he was hiding “It was just for fun, sheeesh!”

 As Josh left, Emily went back to watching the snow fall outside. After the commotion they had to put up with back at home, Emily was happy to take a break. She had originally planned going to her parents’ lodge with just Hannah, but she insisted in bringing her siblings and their friends along. Spending the week there without Josh and Beth saying how the lodge their family had was better would have been nice.

 “A penny for your thoughts?” said Hannah, finding Emily much quieter than usual.

 “Did we really need to bring everybody and their Chris along?”

 “Come on, spending time with friends is fun! Besides,” Hannah kissed her on the cheek and held her tighter. “this makes the moments we have by ourselves more special, doesn’t it?”

 “Okay, I’ll accept that argument.” Emily turned round, her hands on Hannah’s waist, pulling her into a kiss.

 The moment was ruined when a snowball hit Emily’s head.

 “Jooooosh!” Emily shouted as she stomped out of the room.

 “It was Beth!”

 “No it wasn’t!”

 The Washington siblings ran to the door and Emily chased them outside, grabbing handfuls of snow and throwing it at them. Hannah smiled and ran after them.

 The Ice Castle looked menacing in the distance, Prince Josh and Princess Beth at the top of its icy walls, commanding their soldiers to prepare the snow cannons. Queen Hannah looked back at their army of Sams, Ashleys, Chrises, Matts, Mikes and Jessicas. She looked at Queen Emily and they both shared a smile.

 “Let’s teach those brats a lesson, dear!”

 “Right behind you.”

 “Brats? We are older than you!” shouted Prince Josh from the icy wall.

“Charge!” he queens commanded in unison, and their imaginary army of multiplied friends marched into battle.

 


End file.
